The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1887-03-27
AUTHORS ANDPUBLISHERS
THEMR RELATIONS IN ENGLAND
MIR. sOsS ~ SPEECH
On ono Ruais esa OF writing ana tho
Helpteble and UDhelpRbis
Authors.

From the London 7imcs's report
Of the meeting oil the Society Of Au-
thsrG Mr.. Gosse. who was received
with cheers, said chat the unsatisfac-
tory relations Of author to publisher
By no means absorbed the whole at
tentisa Of the Society of Authors.
On that occasion nothing would be
said en- the piquant theme of the
wicked publisher, The author had
alse 70 be defended against the
wicked public, and the subject Of that
afternoons discourse would be the
extent and mode in which the
pressure on the unsuccessful or half
successful man or woman Of letters
could be miuimized by organization.
1t was useless to attempt to run
counter TO tho natural laws of econo-
my or to fierce uuinterested readers
10 buy books against their will
Authorship must be looked upon as
a profession, subject, like other pro-
fessions. to the laws of supply and
demand. 1t had to be acknowledged
that high literary success was rare
indeed, aud il the society did no
mere, they believed that it would be
of service in continuing to impress
upon beginners the extreme folly of
trying to live by pure literature. All
those and other difficulties they
must frankly face. Every editor in
tho Anglo Saxon world was deluged
with manuscript. Thousands of pens
were working away without the slight
est reasonable hope, One OF the first
things to be done was to distin-
guish tho helpable from the unhelp-
able author. In the eighteenth ocn-
fury the type of the unhelpable au-
thor was Samuel Boyse, author Of
the Deity" a poem which Fielding
and Pope praised. Boyse sat for six
weeks in bed writing on his knee,
with his arm through a hole in the
blanket because he had no shirt, and
then, when his friends made a sub
soription for him. spout tho money
on truAles. Being employed for
charity to ira nslate Feuelon on the
"Existonce of God no Immediately
married on the strength of the com
mission. No power could keep that
sort of man from starvation, and
when no occurs nowadays he was as
unhelpablc as he was a hundred
years ago. There were men who
loafed about tho British Museum
doing odd jobs for the publishers,
writing or compiling hack books fol
a pittanoe, which they spent on drink.
Such men could no more be hell Cd
than Savage or Boyse could, but by
their side there were struggling or
excellent fellows whom little en-
couragement from wise organiZa'
ton could help to become ornaments
to the profession. The authors for
whom the society felt the most ur-
gent sympathy were those who were
capable Of making a small Legitimate
: success The men aud women whose
property needed to be protected were
those who were doing pure aud use
full work which was at presen
: appreciated only by small
| circle. Ii was such as these whom
they desired to guard against pitiall
, and 10 keep out OF undesirable
: hands, Women especially, who haC
| done and who were doing so mucf
l that was noble and skilltul in the ar
) Of literature, seemed TO have one les
| son which they could not learn--tha
, Of helping themselves in the business
relations OF life. In their Office they
r held confidential information Of thu
= most startling kind, and they SPOKE
. knowing what it was they said wheI
= they described the helplessness o
9 the hSli successful professions
9 writer, They believed that rep
e edy for those conditions was to b'
r found in an organized society Tor thu
r protection Of authors, and such a so
h oioty they desired that theirs SHOULD
IS become, For exactly fifty years the
t Soclete des Gems de Lettres, founded
y ~ 1881, had performed similar iunc
n tions in Paris. 1t had defended tn
:, intellectual property Of it's members
1t had secured for them the just adyan
y tages acoruing ltom their work. hat
st amehorated tbs position of the liter
a airy profession, aud had given to $50
o lated aud inexperienced authors tn
T advantage Of organized and instruct